The Robin Hood tax is a package of financial transaction taxes (FTT) proposed by a campaigning group of civil society non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Campaigners have suggested the tax could be implemented globally, regionally, or unilaterally by individual nations. Conceptually similar to the Tobin tax (which was proposed for foreign currency exchange only), it would affect a wider range of asset classes including the purchase and sale of bonds, commodities, mutual funds, stocks, unit-trusts, and derivatives such as futures and options.
A United Kingdom-based global campaign for the Robin Hood tax was launched on 10 February 2010, and is being run by a coalition of over 50 charities and organisations, including Christian Aid, Comic Relief and UNICEF. The UK government published a response favouring instead bank levies and a financial activities tax,HM Treasury: Robin Hood Tax citing the International Monetary Fund's report to the June 2010 G20 meeting, "A Fair and Substantial Contribution by the Financial Sector".A Fair and Substantial Contribution by the Financial Sector The Robin Hood tax campaign also supports both a Bank levy and a Financial Activity Tax, saying they are agnostic about the chosen mechanism providing it involves a sizeable transfer of wealth from the financial sector to the needy. However most of their campaigning efforts have focussed on the FTT variant.
By autumn 2011, the Robin Hood campaign had gained considerable extra momentum and support from prominent opinion formers, with a proposal from the European Commission to implement an FTT tax at EU level set to enter the legislative pipeline. The proposal, supported by eleven EU member states, was approved in the European Parliament in December 2012, and by the Council of the European Union in January 2013."Robin Hood Gets Go Ahead in Europe" RobinHoodTax.org, 23 January 2013"Barnier: Europe's 'Robin Hood' tax 'politically and morally right'" CNN, 25 January 2013
The formal agreement on the details of the EU FTT still need to be decided upon and approved by the European Parliament. In June 2023, the European Commission stated that "the prospects of reaching an agreement" on the FTT in the future were "limited", adding there was "little expectation that any proposal would be agreed in the short term".
Early history of the terminology Robin Hood is an English folk hero said to have stolen from the rich to give to the poor. Redistributive taxes have thus long been called Robin Hood taxes. In 2001, the charity War on Want released The Robin Hood Tax,The Robin Hood Tax on the War on Want web site. an earlier proposal presenting their case for a currency transaction tax. In 2008, Italian treasury minister Giulio Tremonti introduced a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies. Tremonti called the tax a "Robin Hood Tax" as it was aimed at the wealthy with revenue to be used for the benefit of poorer citizens, though unlike the tax campaigned for in 2010 it was neither a transaction tax nor global nor aimed at banks.
The 2010 UK campaign The campaign has proposed to set taxes on a range of financial transactions – the rate would vary but would average at about 0.05%. The tax would be applied to those trading in financial products such as stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, futures, and options. It would affect individual investors, banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions. The campaign is sponsored by various charities, aiming to raise money for International development, to tackle climate change and to protect public services. The amount of money raised would depend on a number of factors, including how many countries agree to the tax and the rate.
It has been proposed by the campaigning (lobbying) group that the money raised from this tax be split between domestic use and international aid.FAQ: How would you spend the Robin Hood Tax? In an article co-authored by one of the campaign's most prominent advocates, Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis, it was suggested that approximately 50% of funds raised would be assigned to domestic use to protect public services and for governments to tackle poverty at home. Under the proposal, international efforts to reduce global poverty would receive another 25%, and the remaining 25% would go towards helping low income countries mitigate the effects of climate change and to reduce their own emissions.
The British campaign's launch was accompanied by an online poll on the charity's web site for the public to have a say on whether they support the tax. Initially, there was an apparent backlash with what appeared to be thousands of members of the public visiting the Robin Hood Tax to vote against the idea. However, on investigation it was claimed by the lobbying group that some five thousand of the "no" votes came from only two servers, one of them belonging to the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
The Robin Hood tax has been supported by some 350 economists in a letter written to the G20, including Joseph Stiglitz and Jeffery Sachs. Politicians supporting the tax include Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Katsuya Okada, Japan's foreign minister. According to a press release by the lobbying organisation, support has been forthcoming from the financial sector by prominent figures including George Soros, Warren Buffett and Lord Turner, chairman of the UK's Financial Services Authority. At 5 February 2010 G7 meeting in Canada consensus was formed for some form of tax charged against large banks to cover the cost to government of insuring banks against future crisis. G7 officials planned to seek approval from other G20 nations at the June 2010 summit before progressing towards implementation.
While the movement supporting this or similar transaction taxes is international, the use of the "Robin Hood" theme has been especially prominent in the United Kingdom. An early thrust of the 2010 campaign involved grass roots supporters being encouraged to lobby MPs and the British Treasury for an implementation of the Robin Hood tax to be announced unilaterally as part of the UK's 24 March 2010 Budget. The British Chancellor refused to implement a Robin Hood tax, saying it would need to be co-ordinated internationally or else it would result in thousands of jobs being lost in the UK. Another theatre for the campaign is the European Parliament, where in March 2010 a resolution was passed calling for progress to be made in identifying ways to set up a "Robin Hood" type tax.
Efforts in 2011 and later Campaigning for the tax continued in 2011, with over 1000 economists signing a letter addressed to G20 finance ministers prior to their April 2011 meeting in Washington. Prominent signatories include Jeffery Sachs; Nobel prize winners Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman; Harvard's Dani Rodrik and Cambridge's Ha-Joon Chang. A copy of the letter was also sent to Bill Gates, who has been commissioned by G20 chair and French president Nicolas Sarkozy to investigate new ways of funding the development of low income countries. The Guardian reported that staff from the Gates Foundation are also involved in international lobbying at G20 capitals.
The Robin Hood campaign has been attempting to build international public enthusiasm for the tax prior to the November G20 summit; in June 2011 the organisation reported the staging of campaigning events in 43 countries. In late June the European Commission reversed its earlier opposition to the tax, proposing EU financial transaction tax be adopted within all member states of the European Union. Moves to pass the proposal through the legislative process are scheduled to commence in autumn 2011. A European version of the tax is projected to raise up to €30bn a year. ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet warned that implementing the tax could hurt Europe unless it could be rolled out globally. In August 2011 Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel affirmed their support for the proposed European implementation. Great Britain's prime minister David Cameron remains opposed to the tax unless it can be implemented globally, meaning that a European implementation would likely have to be confined to the Eurozone not the whole EU.
As part of his September State of the Union speech, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso officially proposed an upgraded package of transaction taxes for adoption by the EU, now projected to raise up to €55bn ($75bn) per year. Also in September, Bill Gates presented his preliminary findings to the 2011 IMF & World Bank meeting in support of the Robin Hood tax. Gates's proposal is for a set of taxes which could raise between $48–250bn per year. Unlike Barroso's proposal, Gates is advocating the tax be adopted on a G20 wide bases rather than for just the EU, and Gate's plan is geared more towards raising funds for aid and development rather than for regular public spending and repairing government finances. Various British business, banks and economists such as Howard Davies have attacked the EU proposal saying it would be bad for growth and would harm the economy. Max Lawson for the Robin Hood campaign responded to developments by saying "Game on!".
In October, Adbusters, the organisation responsible for sparking the Occupy movement, called for a global march in support of the Robin Hood tax, to take place on 29 October just before the 2011 G20 leaders summit. Marches did not occur in all "occupied" cities, but events involving several hundred protesters did take place at locations including Washington DC, Vancouver and Edinburgh. Also in October, the Robin Hood tax was endorsed by Pope Benedict XVI. In November, Rowan Williams, then Archbishop of Canterbury, re-affirmed his support of the Robin Hood campaign with an article in the Financial Times, saying the Vatican's strong backing for a FTT was "probably the most far-reaching" of their recent statements on reforming the International monetary system.
In November, Bill Gates presented his report to the 2011 G-20 Cannes summit, saying that a FTT tax could be an effective way to raise funds to tackle poverty in the developing world. However, Gates also told the Financial Times that an FTT was only one option among many, admitting that in his opinion it was less important than tobacco and fuel taxes. At the G20 Summit, there was strong support for the Robin Hood tax from Germany and France but opposition from other members including the US, Canada and Australia.
A few days after the G20 Summit, European finance leaders debated the possible introduction of a regional FTT tax. Again there was strong support from Germany and France but also from Austria, Belgium, Greece, Finland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, while strong opposition comes from Britain, Sweden, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria, with some members being sceptical especially about the value of implementing an FTT without including at least all 27 EU states. As European Union members remain divided over the issue, advocates of the FTT have said it could be implemented only within the eurozone, excluding countries like Sweden and the United Kingdom. France's president Hollande had committed to a Robin Hood tax in his 2012 election campaign. In a meeting just prior to the 2012 G8 summit he advised that he intends to uphold his commitment, though David Cameron repeated that Britain would veto the tax if attempts were made to impose it across the EU. Plans were made in France to implement the tax unilaterally, though these were superseded by an agreement to launch a Robin Hood tax at EU level. Eleven countries including France and Germany will take part, with the tax due to go live in 2014.
European Union financial transaction tax